Welcome to Chez Robert Giron, a blog of random thoughts about life, books, art, film, music, and theatre.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Tameme's Chapbook Series

Tameme, Inc., edited by C.M. Mayo of Washington, DC, has begun a chapbook / cuardernos series, the first of which is Carne verde, piel negra by Mexican author Agustín Cadena. The translation, An Avocado from Michoacán, is by C.M. Mayo.

The story encased in a handsome chapbook with a painting by Mexican artist Edgar Soberon with the bookcover designed by Ines Hilde is quite Mexican in its style, tradition and message.

A boy's mother is dying and her last wish is a delicious Michoacán avocado in the middle of winter, a wish which torments the narrtor, the son. The son is worried about his mother's health and finds himself repeating Catholic customs such as making the sign of the cross which is no engrained that it has become a ritual, so Spanish in character that visions of semana santa, as done in Sevilla during the Easter Holy Week, come to mind upon reading the passage. Yet we are in the USA in this story, the dream having transported the mother back to her homeland though she awakes and is told that it is snowing. She refuses to see the snow and instead is focused on an avocado her son now attempts to get for her.

The story is the first of the bilingual (English/Spanish) series to be continued by Tameme, Inc., which has as its goal to bring forth good Spanish work to English speakers/readers and English work to Spanish speakers/readers via translations of current writers from Canada, the USA, and Mexico.

Truly Tameme and C.M. Mayo are doing fine work and I hope others will visit the website to read and support the press: Tameme.Org

Muchisimas gracias Robert! I really appreciate your kind comments about Tameme's first chapbook. By the way, the cover was designed by Ines Hilde, but the painting of the avocadoes is by Edgar Soberon, an amazingly accomplished artist who lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Check out his website at www.edgarsoberon.com Agustin Cadena, the writer, is blogging at "El vino y la hiel"--- where he frequently posts original work.